and speaking of the fiscal cliff, let me say to washington, no vacation without legislation. we will be virtually monitoring airports to see which legislators are leaving town now that the vacation is supposed to begin. you know what? if we don't have a deal by this vacation, or a pledge not to go away, then the odds go to -- down to 50-50 that we'll get one before the end of the year. and then we may only get one when people look at their take-home play and have a collective bout of nausea from a recognition that there was a fiscal cliff all along and we were just pushed over it. that's how much your paycheck's going to shrink. here's the bottom line. let's hope for the best that our politicians move in the right direction. something we can see as early as sunday morning when they appear on the major political talk shows like "meet the press." but we'll be preparing for the worst. >> the house of pain! >> that our lawmakers go home for the holidays, meaning we will likely go over the cliff and nothing will be done about it until after taxpayers actually feel the real pain. l